1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a probe and a probe set for detecting a DNA of a pathogenic fungus, Cryptococcus neoformans, which are useful for detection and identification of a causative fungus of an infectious disease, and to a probe carrier on which the probe or the probe set is immobilized. The present invention also relates to a DNA testing method and a DNA testing kit using the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
Heretofore, reagents for and methods of quickly and accurately detecting pathogenic fungi in a sample have been proposed. For instance, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. H08-089254 discloses oligonucleotides having specific base sequences, which can be used as probes and primers for detecting pathogenic fungi of candidiasis and aspergillosis, and a method of detecting target fungi using such oligonucleotides. In addition, the same patent document also discloses a primer set used for PCR amplifying a plurality of target fungi in common. Further, the same patent document also discloses a method of identifying fungus species in a sample comprising subjecting a plurality of target fungi in the sample to PCR amplification using the primer set, and then detecting the sequence portions specific to the respective fungi by a hybridization assay using the probes specific to the respective fungi.
On the other hand, a method capable of simultaneously detecting a plurality of oligonucleotides having different base sequences is known. The method uses a probe array in which probes having sequences complementary to the respective base sequences are arranged at intervals on a solid phase (Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2004-313181).